Lee DeHihns is a member of the firm’s Environmental and Land Use Group. He has practiced environmental law since 1974. He concentrates on regulatory matters and defensive litigation matters, including corporate audits, compliance program development, debarment, white-collar criminal defense, air quality, hazardous waste, water quality and wetlands matters for industrial and municipal clients. Lee works on many complex and high profile matters.
He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers magazine. Mr. DeHihns was ranked as a leading environmental lawyer in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2006). He is the chair-elect of the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER) 2006-2007 and he will become section chair in August 2007.
He is an author on the topics of water quality and quantity, corporate environmental responsibility, and citizen suits, and a frequent speaker to professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, the Georgia Municipal Association, and the Atlanta Bar Association.
Lee DeHihns is a member of the firm’s Environmental and Land Use Group. He has practiced environmental law since 1974. He concentrates on regulatory matters and defensive litigation matters, including corporate audits, compliance program development, debarment, white-collar criminal defense, air quality, hazardous waste, water quality and wetlands matters for industrial and municipal clients. Lee works on many complex and high profile matters.
He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers magazine. Mr. DeHihns was ranked as a leading environmental lawyer in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2006). He is the chair-elect of the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER) 2006-2007 and he will become section chair in August 2007.
He is an author on the topics of water quality and quantity, corporate environmental responsibility, and citizen suits, and a frequent speaker to professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, the Georgia Municipal Association, and the Atlanta Bar Association.
He was successful in getting USEPA to take the unprecedented action of withdrawing its proposed debarment of a Georgia municipality. He also assisted a corporation in negotiating a favorable debarment resolution with USEPA and the Department of Interior in the aftermath of a highly publicized criminal plea for environmental violations. He successfully represented a corporation in defeating class certification in an Alabama federal court case involving allegations of air pollution crossing interstate boundaries. He successfully represented the City (GMA) and County (ACCG) representative organizations as amicus parties in federal court in Georgia in one of the most important water quality cases in the country. He is frequently asked by both groups to speak on water quality and related land use issues and has participated in such programs with the governor of Georgia and other federal and state elected officials.
His corporate compliance practice includes conducting confidential internal investigations and participation in corporate compliance audits and assessments, as well as defense of white-collar criminal actions.
Lee joined the firm in 1990 after serving four years as deputy regional administrator of USEPA Region 4, the agency's senior career position in the Southeast. His career began with USEPA in 1974 in Washington, D.C. where he rose to the position of associate general counsel. Lee received a Senior Executive Service Meritorious Rank Award from President Bush in 1989.
Lee was previously a member of the SEER Council, 2001-2004, and chair of the Water Quality and Wetlands Committee, 1999-2001 and a vice chair of that committee, 1997-1999.